by Cathy Yuen. / Bibliography: leaves i-v / Thesis (M.S.W.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1984

Patterns of participation in formal organizations by residents of a rural non-farm community are compared with those of residents in an urban community. Multi-stage random sampling is utilized in Denton to select those interviewed. In Krum, each residence was numbered and a table of random numbers was used to select households. Chapter One includes the study's purpose, review of the literature, and statement of the hypothesis. Methodology is discussed in the second chapter. Chapter Three focuses on findings and discussions. Data indicate that in the urban community social class, age, homeownership, and length of residency are related to amount of participation. In the rural non-0farm community social class is related to participation. Residents in the urban community participate more than those in the rural non-farm community.

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Sciences

The relationship between work status (working and retired) and the degree of formal and informal social participation among elderly respondents sixty to sixty-nine years of age was studied and analyzed. A national probability sample of 735 elderly Americans provided the major data source. Elaboration model was used to further understand and explain the relationship between work status and the degree of formal and informal social participation. Ten control variables were introduced: work status of spouse, marital status, occupational status, family income, satisfaction with health, size of kinship network, race, gender, and size of community of residence. Indices of formal and informal social participation were constructed.

The population of older persons has increased dramatically over the years in South Africa as well as internationally. As populations continue to age, the concept of active ageing has received increasing attention from researchers. Active ageing can be defined as the process of optimising older persons’ opportunities for health promotion, participation, and security in order to enhance their quality of life. In this definition, “health” refers to physical, mental, and social well-being. “Participation” refers to the optimisation of participation in activities such as employment, education, the arts, and religion, and “security” refers to ways in which the protection, dignity, and care of older persons can be maintained and improved. The distribution of older persons in South Africa by ethnic group is disproportionate with older white persons representing 21% of the total older population. Many of these white older persons reside in retirement villages resulting in their being populated by older white persons more so than by members of other ethnic groups. Retirement village policies and programmes generally incorporate an active ageing philosophy. However, most research on active ageing in retirement villages is conducted internationally, and, furthermore, it does not include the subjective experiences of older persons in these active environments. The aim of this research was therefore to explore the experiences of older residents in a retirement village with an active ageing approach. Barker’s behaviour setting theory and the continuity theory were applied in this study. The behaviour setting theory holds that the environment (retirement village) in which people function is important when explaining human behaviour and exploring the subjective experiences of older persons. The continuity theory rests on the premise that ageing is not a static process but rather an ongoing process and that continuity is a primary strategy used by people to deal with changes associated with ageing. According to this theory, people endeavour to continue with the psychological and social patterns they developed and adopted during their lifetimes. The study was conducted at a retirement village in Boksburg, Johannesburg (Gauteng, South Africa), that follows an active ageing approach, making it an ideal context for exploring the subjective experiences of older persons in an active ageing environment. The retirement village has a dedicated life style consultant who has developed specific programmes for every day of the week with time slots allocated for different activities in which older persons can participate. The programmes exclude frail people in the facility who cannot participate owing to their physical limitations. The director of the organisation that is responsible for many retirement villages, and this one in particular, contacted the researchers and asked them to explore the residents’ quality of life experiences so that the services provided to them could be adjusted if necessary. Ethical approval for the research was obtained from the Health Research Ethics Committee of the North-West University. The manager of the retirement village was also asked to distribute posters indicating the nature of the research. On the day of the data gathering, the participants were told about the research and that they would be required, if they wished to participate, to engage in individual interviews with the researchers and take part in the Mmogo-method®, a projective visual research method (Roos, 2008, 2012). The residents who agreed to participate gave their informed consent and confirmed that their participation was voluntary and they had been made aware that they could withdraw from the study at any time. Twenty participants were recruited for the study of whom 16 were women and four were men. The ages ranged between 65 and 80 years with an average age of 73. Two of the participants were English speaking, and the remainder were Afrikaans speaking. They were given the Mmogo-method® materials, which consisted of clay, straws, and colourful beads, and were invited to make visual representations of their lives and activities at the retirement village. The research request was, “Build something that describes your life here at the retirement village”. When all the participants had completed their visual representations, the representations were photographed and served as visual data. The researcher then asked each participant what he or she each had made and why he or she had made it. An informal group discussion was subsequently held with the 18 participants who had taken part in the Mmogo-method®. Individual in-depth interviews with two participants were conducted after the Mmogo-method® had been carried out. All the discussions were audiotaped and served as textual data. The visual data were analysed by getting the literal meanings of the visual representations from the participants in relation to the specific research request. The textual data were analysed thematically, which involved identifying, analysing, and reporting patterns or themes in the data. Different techniques, including crystallisation and member checking, were applied to ensure the trustworthiness of the research process and findings. The findings revealed that the participants were actively involved in a variety of activities on a daily basis. The activities included physical activities organised by the life style consultant or self-initiated activities such as playing tennis, doing line-dancing, going for brisk walks, working out in the gymnasium, and engaging in recreational activities such as fishing, reading, and scrapbooking. The objectives of these activities were to maintain joint flexibility, general health, and mental fitness. Some of the older residents had formalised roles in the retirement village, which they had previous experience of. The participants also took part in different social activities such as paying social visits and making friends. The spiritual activities of the participants were solitary as well as communal. The participants thus experienced the retirement village as a very busy environment with full schedules. In such an environment, people often engage in activities to distract themselves from dealing with difficult circumstances in their lives. Barker’s settings theory holds that older residents’ physical presence in an active environment influences their levels of activity and their subjective experiences. For some residents, an active environment fits into the continuation of the active life styles they developed during the course of their lives, but for others it may have implications for their psychological well-being if they do not have self-regulatory skills to navigate themselves and act merely on feeling obligated to do something. Using an active environment to deal with difficult circumstances can be either a constructive or a destructive coping strategy for older persons. The individual needs of residents should always be taken into account, and retirement villages with an active ageing approach should be aware that one size does not fit all. This study aimed to draw the attention of retirement village managers to the need to take cognisance of the experiences of older persons when implementing ageing policies in their facilities. It also shed new light on the experiences of active ageing among older residents. / MA (Clinical Psychology), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

The population of older persons has increased dramatically over the years in South Africa as well as internationally. As populations continue to age, the concept of active ageing has received increasing attention from researchers. Active ageing can be defined as the process of optimising older persons’ opportunities for health promotion, participation, and security in order to enhance their quality of life. In this definition, “health” refers to physical, mental, and social well-being. “Participation” refers to the optimisation of participation in activities such as employment, education, the arts, and religion, and “security” refers to ways in which the protection, dignity, and care of older persons can be maintained and improved. The distribution of older persons in South Africa by ethnic group is disproportionate with older white persons representing 21% of the total older population. Many of these white older persons reside in retirement villages resulting in their being populated by older white persons more so than by members of other ethnic groups. Retirement village policies and programmes generally incorporate an active ageing philosophy. However, most research on active ageing in retirement villages is conducted internationally, and, furthermore, it does not include the subjective experiences of older persons in these active environments. The aim of this research was therefore to explore the experiences of older residents in a retirement village with an active ageing approach. Barker’s behaviour setting theory and the continuity theory were applied in this study. The behaviour setting theory holds that the environment (retirement village) in which people function is important when explaining human behaviour and exploring the subjective experiences of older persons. The continuity theory rests on the premise that ageing is not a static process but rather an ongoing process and that continuity is a primary strategy used by people to deal with changes associated with ageing. According to this theory, people endeavour to continue with the psychological and social patterns they developed and adopted during their lifetimes. The study was conducted at a retirement village in Boksburg, Johannesburg (Gauteng, South Africa), that follows an active ageing approach, making it an ideal context for exploring the subjective experiences of older persons in an active ageing environment. The retirement village has a dedicated life style consultant who has developed specific programmes for every day of the week with time slots allocated for different activities in which older persons can participate. The programmes exclude frail people in the facility who cannot participate owing to their physical limitations. The director of the organisation that is responsible for many retirement villages, and this one in particular, contacted the researchers and asked them to explore the residents’ quality of life experiences so that the services provided to them could be adjusted if necessary. Ethical approval for the research was obtained from the Health Research Ethics Committee of the North-West University. The manager of the retirement village was also asked to distribute posters indicating the nature of the research. On the day of the data gathering, the participants were told about the research and that they would be required, if they wished to participate, to engage in individual interviews with the researchers and take part in the Mmogo-method®, a projective visual research method (Roos, 2008, 2012). The residents who agreed to participate gave their informed consent and confirmed that their participation was voluntary and they had been made aware that they could withdraw from the study at any time. Twenty participants were recruited for the study of whom 16 were women and four were men. The ages ranged between 65 and 80 years with an average age of 73. Two of the participants were English speaking, and the remainder were Afrikaans speaking. They were given the Mmogo-method® materials, which consisted of clay, straws, and colourful beads, and were invited to make visual representations of their lives and activities at the retirement village. The research request was, “Build something that describes your life here at the retirement village”. When all the participants had completed their visual representations, the representations were photographed and served as visual data. The researcher then asked each participant what he or she each had made and why he or she had made it. An informal group discussion was subsequently held with the 18 participants who had taken part in the Mmogo-method®. Individual in-depth interviews with two participants were conducted after the Mmogo-method® had been carried out. All the discussions were audiotaped and served as textual data. The visual data were analysed by getting the literal meanings of the visual representations from the participants in relation to the specific research request. The textual data were analysed thematically, which involved identifying, analysing, and reporting patterns or themes in the data. Different techniques, including crystallisation and member checking, were applied to ensure the trustworthiness of the research process and findings. The findings revealed that the participants were actively involved in a variety of activities on a daily basis. The activities included physical activities organised by the life style consultant or self-initiated activities such as playing tennis, doing line-dancing, going for brisk walks, working out in the gymnasium, and engaging in recreational activities such as fishing, reading, and scrapbooking. The objectives of these activities were to maintain joint flexibility, general health, and mental fitness. Some of the older residents had formalised roles in the retirement village, which they had previous experience of. The participants also took part in different social activities such as paying social visits and making friends. The spiritual activities of the participants were solitary as well as communal. The participants thus experienced the retirement village as a very busy environment with full schedules. In such an environment, people often engage in activities to distract themselves from dealing with difficult circumstances in their lives. Barker’s settings theory holds that older residents’ physical presence in an active environment influences their levels of activity and their subjective experiences. For some residents, an active environment fits into the continuation of the active life styles they developed during the course of their lives, but for others it may have implications for their psychological well-being if they do not have self-regulatory skills to navigate themselves and act merely on feeling obligated to do something. Using an active environment to deal with difficult circumstances can be either a constructive or a destructive coping strategy for older persons. The individual needs of residents should always be taken into account, and retirement villages with an active ageing approach should be aware that one size does not fit all. This study aimed to draw the attention of retirement village managers to the need to take cognisance of the experiences of older persons when implementing ageing policies in their facilities. It also shed new light on the experiences of active ageing among older residents. / MA (Clinical Psychology), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Inflytande och delaktighet utgör det första målområdet i svensk folkhälsopolitik och anses vara grundläggande för människors hälsa. Sambandet mellan delaktighet och hälsa är etablerat, men framför allt bland vuxna. Hur sambandet mellan delaktighet, och i synnerhet hur olika komponenter av delaktighet, och hälsa ser ut bland gymnasieungdomar är inte lika väl undersökt. Syftet med studien var att dels undersöka samband mellan delaktighet i form av vilja att påverka frågor i kommunen samt föreningsaktivitet och självskattad hälsa bland gymnasieungdomar, dels hur sambanden förändras vid kontroll av andra faktorer. Studien hade en tvärsnittsdesign och baserades på befolkningsenkäten Liv och hälsa ung i Uppsala län från 2013. Urvalet bestod av 2453 gymnasieelever. Sambanden analyserades med hjälp av binär logistisk regression. Att vilja påverka frågor i kommunen hade ett svagt samband med självskattad hälsa, men vid justering av sociodemografiska, sociala samt skolrelaterade faktorer försvann sambandet. Föreningsaktivitet var däremot signifikant associerat med självskattad hälsa, där föreningsinaktivitet var förknippat med högre odds för självskattad ohälsa. Faktorer närmare ungdomarnas liv hade emellertid starkare samband med deras självskattade hälsa. Riktningen i sambanden kunde inte fastslås, men baserat på tidigare forskning, indikerar resultatet att föreningsaktivitet kan vara ett område att rikta folkhälsoinsatser mot. Både som ett sätt att främja hälsa, men också för att öka demokratist deltagande och inflytande. / Influence and participation is the first target area in the Swedish public health policy and is considered essential to people’s health. The link between participation and health is established, but especially among adults. How participation, and in particular how various components of participation, are related to health among high school students is not as well investigated. The aim of the study was partly to investigate if participation in terms of wanting to influence issues of the municipality and also engagement in different associations relate to self-rated health among high school students, partly how the relationships change when adjusting for other factors. The study had a cross-sectional design and was based on the population survey Liv och hälsa ung in Uppsala County from 2013. The study population consisted of 2453 high school students. The correlations were analysed using binary logistic regression. Wanting to influence issues in the municipality had a weak correlation with self-rated health, and when adjusting for socio-demographic, social and school-related factors, the relationship disappeared. Engagement in an association, however, was significantly associated with self-rated health. Not being engaged in an association was associated with higher odds of self-rated health less then good, although factors closer to the adolescents had a stronger relationship with their self-rated health. The direction of the relationship could not be confirmed, but based on previous research, the results suggest that public health initiatives aimed at increasing the involvement in associations may be relevant, both as a step to promote health and to increase democratic participation and influence.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2011. / Crowdsourcing is a new phenomenon, giving companies the ability to tap into the wisdom of crowds in order to solve complex problems, often at a fraction of the cost. In this document, the viability of crowdsourcing from the supply side is investigated with a market research questionnaire at the core of the research. Firstly, an overview of the current online crowdsourcing landscape is given with a focus on the big players, followed by a literature study on the motivation of solvers and their associated compensation needs. Because of the nature of crowdsourcing, an assumption is made that knowledge workers will be the biggest contributors in the form of solvers; this presumption is demonstrated by analysing responses to the questionnaire. The following research question is answered: What are the needs and profile of the solvers (supply side) of an internet platform that uses the principle of crowdsourcing to solve complex problems? It also answers the questions of many online crowdsourcing enthusiasts with regards to the typical solver and what their needs are, specifically with regards to compensation structures on these platforms. The typical solver profile was found to be predominantly male between the ages of 19 and 37, with a tertiary education or busy earning a degree of some sort and a strong will to become wealthy through applying this knowledge. These typical solvers have a primary objective to earn money with 100 per cent of the incentive paid to one „winner‟. They will participate more than three times even if they do not „win‟ the challenge and expect to earn more that R1 000 but less than R10 000 per day for this type of work. Certain limitations of the study are also addressed, like the clear self-selection bias and difficulty to generalise the findings to a well-defined group of people, as became evident from analysing questionnaire findings.

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

Objective(s): The purpose of this study was to describe the impact of fatigue on quality of life (QOL), physical function, and participation in social, recreational, and daily living activities (ADLs) in women living with HIV. Methods: HIV-infected women (n=15; age 44±8 years) were recruited from the Clinical Immunological Outpatient Clinic (CIOC) and the HIV/AIDS Regional Services (HARS) in Kingston. Four questionnaires were completed to obtain information on demographics, fatigue (HIV-Related Fatigue Scale, HRFS), QOL (Medical Outcomes Survey HIV Healthy Survey (MOS-HIV), and valued social, recreational and daily living activities. Participants then performed the 6-minute walk test (6MWT) to assess their physical function. Assessments were conducted in the CIOC or in a gymnasium at another location. Results: Mean length of HIV infection was 12±5 years and 14 of the 15 women were on anti-retroviral therapy. Seven of the 15 women did not have significant issues with fatigue on the HRFS. The other 8 reported that fatigue severely interfered with ADLs, socialization and mental functioning. QOL scores were significantly lower in the fatigued group compared with the non-fatigued group in 8 of 11 sub-scales of the MOS-HIV; the values being approximately 50% of those in the non-fatigued group. Socializing with friends, walking, grocery shopping and cleaning were listed as activities in which participants experienced limitations. No significant differences were found between the fatigued and non-fatigued groups for the distance walked in the 6MWT or for the percent of predicted distance walked. Conclusions: Half of the women with HIV in this study reported that fatigue interfered with daily functioning and participation in day to day activities, impacting their QOL. These findings suggest that fatigue can be a major issue impacting QOL in this population; therefore, fatigue reduction should be one of the priorities of HIV-related medical management. / Thesis (Master, Rehabilitation Science) -- Queen's University, 2013-08-29 13:51:52.993